Lady of the Ring
by Kazumi Kuwabara
Summary: When a stargazing trip goes awry, sixteen year old Taylor Bryant finds herself in a world not her own. Her new task to protect a small magic catalyst, but now she must find a way to get it off and get back home with the help of some unlikely people.
1. Of Spacey Things and Shiny Rings

Kazumi: … … … Okay, so I lied, doesn't everyone once and a while? I WILL be writing a SlayersOC story as I've said … and another one after that-WHICH BY THE WAY- I won't be telling you XD; and then there's the chance that I might write another HellsingOC story, then there'd be three ;p. Anywho, onto the story that I have been putting off for a while now, YIPPE! DISCLAIMER- I do not own 'Slayers' anyway; if I did I'd be flying to school instead of riding the damn school bus. Nor do I own NASA, the news, or the Solar System…God that is SO tempting, NOOT FAIR!

'_Text'_- Thoughts

"_Text"_- TV

"_Text_"- Spell chanting

_Text_/**Text**- Word emphasis

* * *

Of Spacey Things and Shiny Rings

It was the start of a lovely afternoon. On the west side of the small town of Roseburg that stood at the edge of the Shenandoah Mountains, the Bryant family was just sitting down to an evening snack and a moment with the television. Well, most of them anyway. One of the family's three members that had eaten much sooner than the other two was preparing to leave the house for a romp in the local woods; right after they washed the dishes where they was currently in the kitchen for. There, a young girl who looked to be in her teens stood at the sink, absentmindedly humming a song while she cleaned her plates; her brown hair that had rested just a little bit past her shoulders swept forward and covered her brown eyes from concentrating on her task at hand.

Her name was Taylor Bryant, age sixteen, sophomore in her nearby high school.

A bit agitated by her hair Taylor put down the plate and tucked it back behind her ear with a soapy hand. A few minutes later she put the last plate in the dishwasher, mentally complaining about her accursed chores. In the living room her mother, Kate, and her thirteen year old brother, Paul, sat eating their dinner while watching the news as they always did. Suddenly she heard a call from her mother.

"Sweetheart, can you bring some napkins into the living room while you're in the kitchen?"

"Yeah sure!" The brunette replied, drying off her wet hands by rubbing them onto her dark blue tee and khaki capris, her white undershirt completely unaffected. She then went into the other room to hand her mother the napkins she had asked for and sat on the arm of one of the lounge chairs as she put on her hiking sneakers. As she tied the last lace her ears picked up a part of the announcement from the news.

_"_– _oh! One more thing before we move to our evening traffic report with Gina, remember to watch the skies for our Solar System's special performance that was announced last month by NASA. They're all going to be lining up with an extra surprise! A Full Moon, can you believe it? More details after the traffic report, e-"_ The channel was abruptly changed to that of an HBO Movie marathon; the choice of film currently was _Terminator: 2_.

"Bye Mom, I'll be back in a bit. Love ya guys!" Taylor gathered up her small forest green cloth bag of knick-knacks, slung it over her shoulder and headed out the back door. Once outside she unlocked her purple and silver mountain bike and rode swiftly out of her neighborhood before her mother remembered that she had "forgotten" to do her other household chores. Within minutes she had reached the edge of the forest that surrounded her tiny rural city and locked her bike up by a good-sized oak tree and continued on to her trek through the woods.

Taylor Bryant, in a nutshell, was not one of the more popular people in her school; in fact she and the rest of her friends considered themselves in the nerdy, outcast group. She liked to write, draw, and daydream in her free time, when she did get some anyway. She was known to many of those school peers of hers and even to some of the neighborhood kids that she knew as the local nature girl. Although she didn't like being called that and in such contexts by people who she didn't consider friends or even acquaintances for that matter, except for the children she was alright with them calling her that, it did have some sort of truth to it. When she wasn't doing her schoolwork, writing, drawing, or hanging out with friends she was usually outside doing something in those woods. It created an escape for her whenever something went wrong in her life, the woodland setting quickly calming her whenever something bad had happened, that or she just wanted peace or something cool was going on in those woods.

Which was what had brought her to the wood today. Late last month NASA had announced the complete alignment of the Milky Way Solar System, along with Pluto that she still considered a planet. Also on the news at that time was a guest who was a keen planetary scholar that had said that when all of the planets positions were in a straight line something great was supposed to happen, or so says the old texts, on April fifteenth at seven o' clock on the dot. Her family, not one for ancient legends took no notice to it, but Taylor was another story. That day she had woken up with a gut-feeling to go into the forest that very day, and she _always_ followed her instinct no matter how stupid it seemed sometimes.

So there she was in the dense woods of Shenandoah in the evening trying to find a good spot to watch the illustrious space show after three hours on foot, she looked at her digital watch and gawked when she noticed that the time was now 6:56. Hurriedly she quickly scaled up her destination that she had finally reached. It was one of the highest rock faces around and practically overlooked the entire valley which her town was situated in. To the ones who knew about it, the fanatic hikers and nature goers such as herself, it was called Wolves Peak. The reason being a saying was that whenever the moon was full you'd be able to hear the small, friendly, residential wolf pack bay in the evenings. This was one of the most stunning places in her area to be at in the night, and ever since she turned fifteen her mother had finally allowed her to go up there; and she loved it. The peacefulness was music to her ears.

She looked down at her watch again; 6:59 and 50 seconds. _'Yes!'_ She mentally cheered at she sat down on the stone surface surveying the scene before her, her legs extended outward and her arms propped up behind her as she counted down.

"Ten…nine…" A little while behind her she could hear some things trotting along on another part of the stone's surface and she smiled; it was still incredibly cool that they weren't the _big 'n bad_ wolves but even better was that they were completely friendly to the town's residents for some reason.

"...eight…seven…" above her a semi-formed row of faintly seen stars slowly got in line with the moon and her own heavenly body.

"...six…five…" and in the sky a peculiar glow of the planets slowly appeared and connected one by one.

"...four…three…" she frowned as a mildly large chill slowly crept up her spine while she stared into the atmosphere. Her eyes widened as she suddenly noticed the unusual shine. _'Uhh, that doesn't look normal...but then again something **was** supposed to happen...'_

"...two…_ONE_!" A hoarse whisper escaped her lips as the gleam from the sky grew extremely bright, almost blinding. Behind her she could hear loud howling and faint snarling as the scenery was lit up from above. "Holy – JEEZ!" She leapt up from her sitting position to cover her eyes from the offending light as it grew brighter and brighter, practically scorching her irises, wracking her whole body with pain. She was so concentrating on the pain that she didn't notice her body get lighter by the second, it slowly becoming transparent. _'Jesus Christ in Heaven, that fricking HURTS!' _The wolves scattered, whimpering and snarling in protest as the young girl slowly disappeared before their eyes; the bright light fading even quicker than that until it had vanished too. Once gone, the few canines that had remained cautiously poked their heads out of the various bushes and was astounded when they saw no trace of the girl who was just there. She was just…_gone_.

* * *

The first thing that Taylor noticed when she woke up was that it was dark; very dark in fact, that being she couldn't see a blasted thing in front of her face. The second thing was that she was sitting on a damp, rocky surface; God knows how that happened. And third…she had no bloody idea of where the hells she was, at ALL.

"Well…isn't this just peachy?" She was very surprised when her yell echoed through the space around her, steadily fainting into the distance while also hearing droplets of water hitting a solid surface all around her. _'Ummm…okay, that was strange? Am I in a cave, cause I don't remember a ca-' _Suddenly her memories hit her like a ton of bricks and she jerked up. _'Oh HEEELLLL no! I have to be imagining this, I just know it! That weird astral thing did NOT land me here! Please wake up! Please, please, PLEASE WAKE UP!'_ She pinched herself hard on the forearms a couple of times and groaned heavily when there was no improvement. "Aw…man! I'm _so_ screwed...damn." She looked around precariously and sighed, "Oh well, might as well find a way out of…wherever the hells it is that I am."

Taylor sighed and started to feel around for a wall that might have been able to lead her out of the cavern. After successfully doing that she started on her long trek through the cave, as if she wasn't tired enough already from almost walking to the top of a mountain for _three hours_. A while later, two and a half hours when she checked her watch, her search for an exit still hadn't borne any fruit; although she had gotten used to the darkness of the place. She had been tripping over rocks, stalagmites and what she thought was an animal once or twice – which freaked her out greatly, walked into boulders and stalactites and the occasional deep puddle, and on top of that she was wet and cold from the infuriating water that had seemed to be _always_ dripping onto her head. Also on that note, it seemed that she would now and then get the gut feeling to jump back when she tripped over sometimes; and successfully too for not but a second later a stone block would smash into the ground where she was standing. So she did spend some time jumping over trip wires and passing by large pits with some very pointy-looking spikes at the bottom.

It had already seemed like an eternity to her and she was just plain sick of it. Suddenly out of the blue, she could make out a very faint shine of what looked to be moonlight up ahead and she hooted happily. "Light! Yahoo! I am _so_ out of here – I'm going home! YES!" Taylor jumped excitedly and raced toward it, expertly bounding over the things that she was finally able to see. _'Ha-HA! Let's see you trip me now!'_ Then, as she finally reached her destination she skidded to a stop and took a good look at the scene in front of her in shock.

It was not an exit, no; instead there was a curve in the cavern wall making a u-shaped room that had perfectly carved stone steps leading up to a smooth platform. On the walls of the room were several odd carvings and letters which she could not read. In the middle stood a perfect single cylindrical pillar that bathed in the moonlight that came from above. And on the column was one of the tiniest things imaginable; a ring, which was placed on the top of a pentagram shaped stand. "N-no, it can't be…"

Taylor dropped to her knees and wailed miserably, "DAMMIT! I'm _never_ going to get out of here! _AAARRRRRGGHHHHH_!" The darkness around her mercilessly crushing the hope she had of any chance of her getting out.

* * *

Outside the aforementioned cave a troop of odd-looking men carrying various types of weaponry and torches emerged from the lush forest surrounding the stone entrance. A tall burly man strutted out of the crowd and walked to the front of the group, throwing his arms out wide. "My friends! Far we have traveled to reach this point; over many seas and mountains! Through deadly woods and other impudent persons who would've tried to claim our prize! But none of which stopped us, THE GREAT AND MIGHTY DRAGON'S BANE!" The men cheered loudly at the mentions of their name and were quickly silenced by their leader's hand. Up in a tree a figure suddenly appeared out of thin air, unnoticed by the bandits they stood soundlessly against the tree truck listening in on the brigand's speech. "At last, my men, we have arrived; at the place where the infamous Band of Eldohras of the Ancients has been kept for centuries. In our time of great fortune we have been guided by the planets to the place where the Ring of Power was located; and also with the help of this nifty scripture we managed to 'borrow' before we left. And, in just a few moments, it will be ou-"

"-_** RRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!**_" The vagabonds jumped about three feet into the air and stumbled back away from the gaping entrance; scared shitless at the moaning wail emitted from the cave. The figure in the tree raised an eyebrow curiously. One of the bandits crawled over to his boss and latched on his pants leg, shaking nervously.

"H-hey, Boss? D-did the scripture say anything about t-the cave bein' h-haunted?" The leader quickly shook off his fear, and his comrade, and leapt up onto a small boulder to get his groups attention. What didn't help was that his knees were shaking ever so slightly.

"Get up you lily-livered cowards! Grow some backbone; what you just heard was probably some poor soul getting caught in one of the cave's traps." The director suddenly froze and growled menacingly, "Which means… that someone ELSE got here before us – COME ON BOYS! WE'VE GOT US A RING TO FIND!" The gang roared with fierce ambition and dashed into the cave after their leader, leaving the person in the tree to themselves. They chuckled happily and stared into the darkness of the cave with devious, purple eyes. The person sat down on the branch that they had currently been standing on and waited patiently to see how this situation would turn out.

* * *

"Why, WHY, _WHY_, **_WHYYY_**!" The young girl pounded her fists into the ground until they were too numb to feel anything anymore. Tears leaked from her eyes as she gazed angrily at the strange room's moonlight for giving her false hope, cursing it silently. Grimacing, she slowly got up and marched up the stone stairs irritably until she stood face to band with the piece of jewelry. For a few moments she stood there trying to get her emotions to settle down, and to get that small piece of information to finally settle in. When she did she sighed heavily and wiped her eyes on her arm, turning her attention to the little thing in front of her, face scrunched up into a confused state. "Well…that's, um, very interesting…" Taylor slowly encircled the ring on its stone stand, quietly inspecting it as she went around.

It was just a simple thing, a gold band with engravings of the same lettering as the stuff on the walls around her and probably big enough to fit on her middle finger. Along with that she could barely see faint white gold and black-ish curves and swirls along the surface of the circlet. She snickered as the image of her replica of the One Ring from _Lord of the Rings_ popped inside her head. She had gotten it at a Barnes & Noble a little while after the first movie was released. She had bought a bookmark of Legolas Greenleaf and the fake One Ring had come along with it as an extra something.

Taylor chortled to herself again as she picked it up, twirling it along in her palm. _'Oooh, pretty. Maybe I'll go invisible if I put it on; hee hee! Okayokay, gotta stop it with the fangirl crap…'_ She was about to put it on when she heard a faint sound behind her. "Huh? Hey who's the-" She turned around to see what was there, and when she did she almost dropped the little thing in her hand.

"I'd appreciate it if you would put that back down. Really now, didn't your mother teach you about touching things that weren't yours?" came an overly sarcastic voice. There stood a man; well he wasn't really _there_, it was more like a transparent image. He had bright green hair and had long bangs framing his oval shaped face and ran down his back in a semi-long ponytail. He had ebony eyes that were very sharp in shape. Across his brow were two headbands criss crossing each other; one red and the other blue. He wore a sort of medieval swordsman's outfit, minus the armor; a red long sleeved shirt with blue lines running down from where his ribs started and blue pants, and a black cape with red lining.

Apparently her brain was just on the slow side that day because it took just a while longer than it had to register the ring than a spirit; but after a while there was finally a response. "_AAAHHH_! _GHOOOOOOOSSSTT_!" Taylor scrambled away from the figure and backed up against the wall, the man giving her the What-is-wrong-with-you look. "S-stay back! I'll kick your ass if you even come near me!" She paused for a second as her second thought came to her mind, "… uh… nice hair…" From where she was standing she could visibly see the man's eyebrow twitch.

"Right…alright then, enough games kid."

It was Taylor's turn to twitch at the comment, or insult. _'K-KID! Oh, I'll show you kid, you stupid-'_

"Hand over the Ring and you won't hurt yourself." She stopped her mental ranting of what she was going to do to the ghost person when the request reached her ears. She stood silently and looked at the ring in her hands for a few moments before she spoke up again.

"Questions; two actually: um, why should I and who the hell are you to be able to tell me what to do in the first place?" The see-through man almost fell over but quickly straightened himself up right again. Coughing slightly he made a waving motion with his hand.

"How rude… well to introduce myself, my name is Gaven Nakajoumi, the last of the Nakajoumi Reign; also the current protector of the Band of Eldohras." There was an awkward moment of silence before Gaven sighed into his hand and pointed at the thing that Taylor held in her hand. "In other words, the ring you're currently holding."

Taylor 'oooh'ed and took the ring between her thumb and index finger. "So this thing has a name…" She looked over at the apparition, "Does that make it important?" The man gasped loudly.

"'_Is it important_'? _Of course it is you twit of a child_!" Gaven shouted, causing the teenager to jolt slightly at the sudden man coughed again and quickly regained himself, completely ignoring the pissed-off youth. "Please excuse me; I am particularly sensitive about this subject."

Taylor nodded and waved it off, her feelings abruptly forgotten. "You're excused, please do carry on with your rant."

"Right; the duty of guarding it was passed down from generation to generation in my family. When a family member of my heritage died they would take over the last protector's, the last person's who passed over, task of keeping it safe from the fools who would try and use it to bring about the destruction of the world and bring it all back to Chaos." All the while Taylor stood quietly, taking in all the information that the spirit gave her until that last part where she almost fell over from the sudden change in mood.

_'Okay… why does that sound strangely familiar?'_ "Alright, so let me get this straight. It's been your family's duty to guard this thing so when one of you dies you take over for the person who died before you and then you guard it until someone else comes and takes over for you; and if you don't someone would take it and try to destroy the world… …with this itsy-bitsy ring; have I got it down so far?"

The astral man sighed and leaned against the pillar. "That is correct." She hummed and once again pointed at the apparition.

"… that means am I theoretically right about you being dead?"

The ghost gave a small smile, "Yes, technically I am not a living being. But here I am to remain for I am the last; all of my kinsmen were killed in a great battle." There was a small sharp intake of breath as Taylor gasped softly, lowering her eyes to the cave floor.

"Sorry about that man, I know how you feel. My gramps died when I was only five." The man smiled softly sat her attempt to cheer him up, "…so, back to the subject of the ring and why it's so dang important that you people guard it when you're _dead_." Gaven nodded solemnly and continued telling his story, Taylor seated on top of the pillar next to him.

"The Band of Eldohras, or the Ring of Power as it came to be called-" it took all of Taylor's willpower to hold back her hysterics on that one, "-was found by my many times over Great Grandfather on one of his extensive journeys. At first he though it was to be just a little thing of no great importance, like you I'm sure, but when he brought it back to our homeland to have the scholars study it they found that his assumptions weren't true. It held within a great power, so much of it that it had to be sealed away in here for the rest of time, only to have it's location be seen once every two centuries when the planets align in a special way." The girl huffed irritably and muttered curses under her breath.

_'So that's what happened damn.'_ Taylor thought bitterly to herself. _'If I ever get back home I'm so gonna kill that scholar-guy for this.'_ She cursed softly while somewhat listening to the otherworldly lecturer.

"There is also a very old legend that states that the ring was created eons ago during the War of the Monsters Fall-"

"WHAT?!" Taylor shouted recklessly, "What do you mean War of the Monsters Fall? Like THE War of the Monsters Fall?!" _'There's no way he means THE War of the Monsters fall…like __Slayers__ War of the Monster's Fall__right? But if that's true then _–_ crap, THAT DAMNED SPACE-THING LANDED ME HERE! … okay, good thing is that I know about this place; alright then, positive reinforcement__ yay?'_

Gaven gave her an incredulous look. "Oh? So you know about that, interesting."

"Yeah, I guess it is, continue please." Not wanting to waste time talking about things she already knew she quickly waved it off.

"Oh, right. In that time, it was supposedly made to be some kind of weapon but it was never used for some reason." She bit back a smile and her laughter as the image of a certain annoying mazoku came to mind. There was a long pause before Taylor spoke up again.

"May I ask you a hypothetical question?" Gaven chuckled, smiling slyly.

"But of course and what might your question be?"

She shifted her weight from foot to foot nervously, "Well, hypothetically, what would happen if someone put it on?"

"That of which I do know," his voice turned grave as he turned toward the carving on the walls of the room. "When the Ring of Power is worn by a person it becomes attached to them for the rest of their lives, even going as far as passing with them into the next life so that it may stay with them until the end of time. It was originally designed so that others couldn't use it once the wearer put it on. As a great catalyst, it brings the wearer enormous amounts of power; I would imagine so as the ring itself is not only powerful on it's own but enhances the power it already has. The only problem with it is that, theoretically, it also takes energy from the persons life-force and if it is used in great amounts in short periods of time the holder could very well die. If it were to be used for evil, the world would be doomed." Gaven smiled and laughed as he turned back around to face the girl, "But this is only a hypothetical question; but why would you need to kno–_WAAAAHHHHHHH_!" He pointed a see-through finger at her accusingly as he noticed the golden band on her middle finger, her face frozen looking like she got caught with her hands in the universal cookie jar. "_You put it on_! _Why would you put it on_ _after I told you about it's dangers_? _You fool_!" Taylor winced and put her hands up submissively as the spirit made a quick, angry advance on her.

"Hey hey! Chill out man, I'll just take it off and, and…" she grunted as she pulled on the ring with all her strength, but no matter how hard she tried it just wouldn't budge. "Dear God! What the hell is wrong with this thing?!"

Beside her Gaven groaned into his hands. "What part of 'When the Ring of Power is worn by a person it becomes attached to them for the rest of their lives, even going as far as passing with them into the next life so that it can stay with them until the end of time. It was originally designed so that others couldn't use it once the wearer put it on' DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?! And what it the world possessed you to put it on anyway!" He huffed angrily.

"I didn't think it was true, so I'm so-rry Mr. Pissy Ghosty Pants!" Taylor retorted hotly, "Where I came from there are no such things as magic rings or the world getting turned into chaos cause some wacko used the magic ring for evil purposes. And with the exception of the occasional terrorist threat or rumor of someone getting materials to make a nuclear bomb, there's nothing to kill off the world. We write _stories_ about that kinda magic stuff, NOT live it…and by now I think I've realized that I'm not in my world anymore." The ghost gave her an odd look.

"Where did you come from then?" She shrugged slightly and hopped off the column.

"Eh, nothing much; the planet Earth, the United States of America, state of Virginia, the town of Roseburg and that's just on the outskirts of the Shenandoah Mountains." Gaven gave her an even funnier look and started to chuckle, gently placing his hand on her shoulder and patting it gently; Taylor was surprised that he could even touch her in the first place.

"Well, I believe that, even though it was for the wrong reason, the Band of Eldohras would be safest with you. I trust that you will not use it for any type of wrong-doings, kept it safe young one-" she smiled back and waved a finger at him.

"I have a name you know, so I suggest you call me by it." He smiled back and placed a hand on his chest jokingly.

"Oh? And what would that be?" Taylor took a step back and gave him the best Good Guy pose she could muster, smiling mischievously.

"Taylor, it's Taylor Bryant." She stuck out her hand for him to shake and after a couple of seconds the green haired apparition took it and shook it, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Well, then do take good care of it, _Miss Taylor_." Suddenly around them the cave started to shake, small stalactites fell from the ceiling around them. "The cave is collapsing," Taylor's eyes went to the size of saucers and went straight into panic mode.

"WHAT?! Crap, what do we do?!" She looked around frantically but Gaven was one step ahead. He took her by the shoulder and pointed to a small, almost unnoticeable opening by one of the carvings.

"There is a small exit over behind those rocks, go now." He pushed her forward but she stopped and looked back at him sadly.

"But what about you? I just can't leave you here!" He smiled and pointed to his already transparent body that grew fainter by the second.

"My task is done and I am finally able to join my family on the other side, it is your duty now to take care of it. Farewell, and thank you Miss Taylor." With that the spirit of Gaven Nakajoumi, the last of the Nakajoumi royal family, passed on into the next life. Taylor smiled faintly and gave the man a small salute before squeezing through the crevice and into the tunnel to the outside world.

* * *

Outside the bandit gang, who hadn't even gotten the chance to get a third of the way into the cave had to turn back and haul ass to get out of the collapsing tunnel in time to save their men. Thankfully they were experts in making escapes, they were thieves after all, and they all made it. So there they were, standing in front of the entrance where they had started at not five minutes ago, watching in horror as the opening to the underground cavern quickly crumbled, large boulders fanning in, sealing the cave forever.

The Dragon's Bane leader slumped over, as did his men, horribly miserable over the fact that the one chance they had to reach the artifact that they had spent so much time trying to obtain would never be achieved. He sighed dejectedly, not even bothering to cheer his comrades up. "Alright men…lets go home, there's nothing left her-"

"BOSS, BOSS LOOK OVER THERE!" His second-in-command shouted, pointing wildly over by the trail that they had walked on not too long ago. There stood a young girl dusting off her pants and a small green bag and getting small rocks out of her hair when suddenly he noticed a golden shine on one of the fingers of her right hand.

"The Band of Eldohras," he breathed excitedly, "YOU THERE, HALT!"

* * *

Taylor stood catching her breath on the forest path, ridding herself of the debris that now resided in her hair, and on her pants and bag, muttering angry ranting about stupid caves when a gruff voice called out to her from somewhere on her right.

"YOU THERE, HALT!" She froze up and looked over to where it came from only to see a band of unruly-looking men stop in front of her, a particularly ugly one in front pointing at her threateningly. She raised an eyebrow curiously at the vagabonds that surrounded her.

_'…you have GOT to be kidding me…'_ Taylor swore under her breath as the sea of men parted, revealing an even BIGGER male personage. _'Probably their head-hancho.'_ She thought while giant of a man loomed menacingly over her smaller figure.

"Okay missus why don't you give us the Band of Eldohras and nobody gets hurt, okay little girl? We'll make sure you get home to your mommy safe and sound." She could hear the rest of the man snickering but she was too concentrating on controlling her anger to notice.

_'Oh, you really shouldn't have said that, you REALLY shouldn't have said that… Okay, lets asses the situation, these guys are bandits and they want the Band of Eldohras. You are a sixteen year old high school girl with said ring on her hand, and said ring will NEVER come off; I think that by adolescent property laws it makes it mine now, but I doubt that they know what those are…Guess I'm gonna have to wing it.'_ She turned her head and smiled as falsely as she could at the robbers. "Really? And who are you supposed to be?"

The leader laughed wickedly and waved to his men behind him. "Well little missus, we are the Great and Mighty, Dragon's Bane!" The men cheered again while Taylor stood there with a weary look on her face, a small twitch forming under her right eye.

_'Aw, jeez, even **these** guys have the word 'Dragon' in their group name… guess the plot never changes does it?'_ Just then, a sadistically evil idea came to her from one of her memories; memories that included a small red-haired girl with a great BIG ball of fire. '_Ooo, that is just EVIL! Hell, can I even do _that_?' _She grinned wickedly. _'Oh, this is going to be so much fun; oh yeah…payback time boys.'_ She turned back to the men and grinned again. "Sorry boys, this is _my_ ring now and you can't have it. Finders keepers and all that jazz. So leave now and _you _won't get hurt." The bandits bristled angrily as their leader shouted nonsense again at her, not even noticing the chant that she was muttering under her breath until it was too late.

"Now listen here you brat!"

"_Darkness beyond twilight, crimson blood that flows…_"

"Just because you're a girl doesn't mean we won't take you lightly."

"_Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows…_"

"We tried to take another girl your age lightly and we got the shit beat out of us!"

"_I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand_"

"Uh, hey boss?"

"What now Kaidel?! Can't you see I'm trying to scare her!"

"_Before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands_"

"H-her hands are glowin' red."

"What do you mea–AAAAAAAAHHH-"

"_Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess_"

"-HHHHHHH!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES MEN, IT'S LINA INVERSE!" Taylor brought her glowing hands before her and shook her head tauntingly as the crooks tried to flee.

"Who me? No way." The brunette sn The name's Taylor Bryant, sayonara boys! _**DRAGON SLAAAVE**!!_" The moment after the monstrous attack was unleashed, she was in awe as the area before her was lit up by the blazing ball of intense red power as it surged through the wood, taking down anything and everything in it's path that was followed by a loud, powerful explosion proceeded by an equally as powerful shock wave that rang throughout the forest setting. When the dust cleared Taylor was in shock at the humongous crater that was where the bandits, cave, and part of the woodland once was and whistled loudly. "Whoa_…_" She stood in the clearing while looking at her hands in shock. "That felt so_… _just, whoa_… _no way that just happened." Amazingly as she took in the sight before her, she noticed a few of the crooks that were bashed up against some trees from the shock wave were still alive. She snickered softly at the view, "G-go figure, I thought that some would survive that." Her ears perked at the sound of one of them groaning under the rubble and decided it was a very good idea to high-tail it out of there before the rest of them that survived woke up and decided to come at her again.

As Taylor sprinted away from the scene, trying to keep herself from falling over in her weariness, she failed to notice the figure in the tree who had watched her every move from their seat. When she had gotten far enough away, they laughed jovially and got up from their seat and watched as she ran into the distance. "Well now, this _will_ be as fun as I had hoped it'd be." The person disappeared into the night as Taylor walked on the forest path away from the destruction site, starting on her journey into the new world.

* * *

Kazumi: YOSH! Finally done, and I'm really happy with how it came out, thirteen pages long; wow! Heh, heh, 'Dragon Slave'; you people have NO idea how much I want to use that spell on a couple of people in my school. Anywho, the update for my YYH OC story will be coming up so please wait for it. Also, PLEASE REVIEW! I love the reviews, so please keep them coming. I hope you liked this chappie, ja ne for now minna-san!


	2. Appearance of the Purple People Eater

Kazumi: Thank God, I'm FINALLY getting around to this, and it's been really long too; oh well XP. Anyhow, I'm glad that I'm getting good reviews for this story so I'd really appreciate it, 'kay thanks! So I hope you like this chapter…oh, DISCLAIMER! - I don't own Slayers; not no way, not no how. Enjoy!

_'Text'_ - Thoughts

"_Text_" - Spell chanting

"**_TEXT_**" - Spell casting

_Text_/_**Text**_/**Text **- Word emphasis

* * *

Appearance of the Purple-People Eater

"…Yeah, I'll drive naked through the park, and run the stop sign in the dark – Christ she makes this look a helluva lot easier on the show." Taylor muttered to herself as she set her makeshift fishing pole back in the water beside her sock less feet. "And it _really_ doesn't help that the flippin' fish are smarter here than they are back ho–OOWWWWCH!!" The teen screamed as she jerked her left foot out of the cool stream, glaring poisonously at the large bass that was latched onto her big toe. "As well as with homicidal …well, at least I caught it." She sighed, yanking the fish off of her foot and put it with the few others beside her.

It had been three weeks since the Twentieth-century teenager had arrived, so to speak, in the unfamiliar territory; three weeks since she had civilization, and three weeks of constant barrages of bandit attacks, of which she thought were both tiresome and irritating. Apparently, as she heard from some of the beaten muggers she encountered, news about the Band of Eldohras got around quickly through the gangs by the means of the remaining members of the Great Dragons Bane. Her only response to that was, "I should've fired off a second shot."

That was _four_ days ago, when she was still on the road.

Now, she traveled by woodland as to keep the bands of robbers off her trail. Taylor may have been from the modern world, but she did have a few tricks up her sleeve that helped keep her trail hidden from tips she got from the Discovery Channel. In the back of her mind though, she knew the peace of being hidden wouldn't last long.

From what she had been told by the prince Gaven, the ring had been made during the War of the Monsters Fall, lost for some time after that, and was then found by his many-many times over Great Grandfather and protected for thousands of years since then by the dead spirits of the Nakajoumi's for the fear of it being used for evil. Knowing this, she figured that it wouldn't take long for a darker species of person that existed there to get wind of the going-ons. Once that happened, it would all be over.

'_What the hell, until then I'll just make the most of it.'_ Taylor thought to herself. _'Not that I couldn't __**probably**__ take them, I just don't want to. …who am I kidding?! ME up against a MAZOKU …I wouldn't stand a chance at winning! Let alone coming out of it alive_…_'_ Glancing down at her right hand, she looked at the band encircling her finger with utter distaste. "God damn stupid piece of scrap metal, I swear – ugh, whatever." Turning back to the stream in front of her, she rebaited her line and set it back in the water. "Here fishy fishy fishy! Come and get some nice, tasty gruuub! God that sounded so corny."

"Oh, screw it… … here fishy fishy fis–OWOWOWOW_OW_!!" Meanwhile, just a few meters away in a tree, a well hidden figure smiled slyly as they watched the teen curse loudly below from their vantage point. With the sun quickly setting in the distance, it would not be long until they would come out of hiding.

Not long at all.

* * *

Half an hour later, Taylor sighed contently as she finished off the last of the last of the fish; stretching her arms and collapsing backwards onto the cool ground. She had just got through setting up what most people wouldn't call a campsite, but with limited supplies it was the best she could do. The weather got a tad colder at night so she had to make due with some blankets she 'found' and a light jacket from her backpack that she was currently wearing. Now, after eating her fill of dish, she could let herself relax just a bit before completing the usual camp. "Hoo boy, that was… okay… I wish I could eat something else though – like chicken! Or steak! Fish just tastes weird…" Licking her lips, her mind began to wander off to other, more tantalizing, if not completely unhealthy, food.

Popeye's…

Arby's…

T.G.I. Friday's–

"AAARRRGGGHHHH!! This SUCKS! I want good foooood! _A lifetime of fish is not going to cut it_!" The high schooler howled in desperation as her gaze drifted upwards, glaring hatefully at the crystal clear night sky. "I hate you… I hate you _sooo_ much…" During the past week, between running from bandits and trying not to get herself into anymore trouble than she was in already, the young girl had got down to questioning the why's and how's of the situation that she was unwillingly in.

So far; nothing, but she did know one thing. People in this world did have some inkling as to what had happened. See exhibit A - Burnt remains of various old maps and directions of which she had 'obtained' from the robbers that told them of the cave she came out of and descriptions of the ring she now wore. With that in mind, she came to an ultimate conclusion.

If someone knew about what had happened, and was supplying information to others, then there must be a way to reverse the accident out there somewhere.

Along with getting the Band of Eldohras off of her finger.

Not that she minded the power that the ring gave her; she loved the feeling of supernatural heat that gathered in her hands when she defended herself on _occasion_, and flying was the biggest high when there was time to do it. Even though it tired her out after she had done a few big spells at first, the teenager started to slowly get better and better at wielding the foreign energy and was now able to go a while without getting weary. It's just the fact of being constantly targeted was an incredibly uncomfortable feeling; one that she desperately wanted to get rid of.

'_So, two things to do so I can get back home.'_ Taylor thought decisively. _'Get rid of the ring, and definitely find a way out of this backwards dimension. And I will find a way to do those things, even if I have to go though hell and high water to do so!!'_

Moments later, she would deeply regret those spoken words.

It was only when she got up to complete her unfinished work when she noticed that something was seriously off in the area around her. The forest hadn't gone quiet or anything of that sort, but it just felt _wrong_. Like the air had changed somehow.

'_There's something here… or _someone_.'_ Scanning the tree line as quickly as she could, Taylor soon found herself in a troubling situation as she could not see anyone or thing to speak of. _'And they know that I know that they're here. Crap. Okay… you wanna play hard ball buster? Fine. We'll play _hard ball_.'_ Smirking at the underbrush, she brought herself into a calm, defensive stance. "Whoever you are, you're pretty good at hiding; I wonder if you can still stay cool when you're camouflage is burning up around you." As she summoned the hot energy into her palm, the girl kept her eye out for any suspicious movement; there was none. "I'm gonna count to five. One… two… three… four… Okay, that's it, FIV-" Just as she was about to play pyromaniac with the surrounding brush, a small, white flag attached to a tree branch popped out of a bush on her immediate right and waved at her passively. _'…huh?'_

"Now, now, there's no need to do that. I'm coming out peacefully." A peppy voice called out to her from within the plant's interior. Almost instantly, Taylor caught familiarity in the tone as the speaker made their way out of the bushes.

'_Oh gods, I know that voice-!'_ Her chest tightened at the scene before her, trying as hard as she could to keep her emotions in check as her fears were realized and the peace she was just beginning to enjoy was shattered. Unbeknown to her, both hands unconsciously went into her jacket pockets as casually as possible.

The one who had emerged from the forest looked to be an older teenage boy, around her age or so, with short, purple hair and a face that seemed to never have stopped smiling for a very long time. He was dressed in odd apparel, to her standards; a dark cape with a small red and yellow design going around his shoulders, a vanilla colored long-sleeved shirt, white gloved, and pants the same shade as the cape together with tan shoes. Around his neck was a strange metal ornament; silver with three red circular gems. Along with that, he carried a strange wooden staff that split at the top and curved inwards, holding in place a large, red orb, and had a simple satchel that was slung to one side of his waist. "Hello there! I do apologize if I scared you, Miss." he said cheerfully.

'_You can't be serious - you can't be effing serious! Not Xellos, anything but Xellos! __What the hell do I do now?! Um…play stupid!' _She mentally smacked herself while struggling to calm herself down. _'Yeah RIGHT, like that's any help at all! Thrice damned mazoku and their thrice damned panicked feeling sensors…'_ After a few minutes of staring, Taylor finally spoke; her voice set in an impassive, determined tone. "Who are you, and what is your business here?" she demanded.

"Hm, how rude." The not-so stranger pouted, causing a little sweat-drop to form on Taylor's forehead. A second later, the grin was back. "I'm just a traveler that's passing through. Though I wasn't expecting to be threatened with a fire spell; that really surprised me, you know!"

"Uh-huh," She replied skeptically, playing along with her story. "In that case, you wouldn't mind if I accused you of being a bandit gang member?"

"Me? Surely you must be joking," Xellos laughed it off, waving his hands defensively. As he stepped closer to the camp, he pointed to himself. "Is my face really that scary?" The teenager held back a sharp retort that would've without a doubt landed her in hot water and settled for nibbling discretely on her tongue.

"No, I guess not."

"Why would you think such a thing?" The sixteen year old sighed and kept her ground as Xellos stopped just a few feet in front of her.

"I guess it's nothing, but I just keep getting into scrapes with those type of people for a while now. 's like they're following me or something." Exhaling heavily, the brown-haired teen sat down on a nearby log. "So, what did you say your name was again?"

Giving a short chuckle, the mazoku did a small, hand-sweeping bow from where he stood. "I am Xellos, the Mysterious Priest, and you are?"

"Taylor Bryant, nice to meet you," she replied dully. They weren't even past the introductions yet and already she had a feeling of eminent demise creeping up behind her. It made it even worse when she knew to expect it. "…Xellos the _Mysterious Priest_, eh?"

"That's correct." Quirking an eyebrow at the abrupt response, she continued.

"You call _yourself_ the _Mysterious Priest_? That sounds a bit fishy, don't you think?" Said _Mysterious Priest_ just shrugged and continued to smile as the intensity of the situation began to build up bit by bit within her own mind. _'God, does this guy have any OTHER facial expressions than the I-just-got-laid-and-it-was-GOOD look?'_ "Okay, okay; next question, o' _Mysterious One_." Taylor said after she had gestured to a small boulder a little parallel to her own 'chair' with her left hand, quickly returning it to the confines of her jacket, the infamous underling of Beast Master Zelas soon took his given seat across from her, his constant visage never once faltering. _'Guess not_…_'_ "I mean if you don't mind the interrogation-"

"Oh no, not at all! But if I may ask," the mazoku interjected, cracking one slitted eye open ever so slightly, not even enough to see his pupil. "Why all the suspicion?"

Desperately trying to ignore how creepy the person in front of her looked, she replied, "First of all, I don't know you, so I have to make sure that I won't be in danger from you being here. I'm just being careful is all." The teenager threw back. "That's what I was taught back home; be careful around strangers. I'm only following that rule." Ignoring the tug of homesickness at the words 'back home', Taylor stretched her legs as she took a minute to take a closer look at the man sitting in front of her. _'…zeesh, can't read this guy at all, can I? Funny, I always thought I could do that pretty well… Then again, the only people I've read are HUMAN. This guy… doesn't count…'_ "Next question. What brings you out here and to my campsite specifically?"

"Hm? Didn't I already-"

"And could you _please_ try not to lie to me _mister _Xellos," Taylor cut in, finally satisfied that she was able to return an obnoxious grin to their owner; not that it seemed to even faze him. "I'm not stupid enough to fall for that old 'I'm just a traveler passing through' line. That, and I believe that your next words out of your mouth are going to a load of BS." Needless to say, she wasn't very happy when the big, stupid grin of his didn't disappear.

It only worsened.

"I'll try not to, _little_ Taylor."

'_You did NOT just call me _LITTLE_!!_' The brunette fumed, only causing the monster to smile even more.

"But, as I was saying and I _do_ mean it, I am truly just passing through. This is a shortcut that I took on my way to take care of some business. I saw your campfire and came to check it out," he replied with the typical sneer

"Really?" She asked nonchalantly. Unfortunately, even though Taylor kept up an emotionless mask, she couldn't keep her heart from jumping into her throat at the hidden coldness in his words and her finger the magical band encircled from twitching in her pocket. _'Shit, knew it…'_ "What kind of business?" Milliseconds after the sentence fell from her lips, she wished that she could grab them and forcefully stuff them back inside as the anticipated result came just as quickly.

"That is…a secret!" The priest declared taking his usual stance, making the universal motion for silence with his left hand while turning the everlasting grin up five times the normal amount, along with the annoyance that came along with it. However, it was lowered momentarily when the young teen fell off her seat in exasperation - in perfect timing with the situation. "Eh? Are you alright?"

"Fine, it's nothing, really!" She replied frantically. _'Only I just COMPLETELY set myself up for that!! Jeez! I should've known that was coming… Gab would be so laughing at me right now dammit.'_ The high schooler momentarily thought of a friend from home that often talked with her about the fiction she was currently living in. "A secret, huh?" Taylor continued after she had fully regained herself. "What, you can't give me a hint or anything?"

"Well…"Xellos said thoughtfully while he stared off to the side, "it's just a small recovery job. Nothing that can't be easily taken care of."

She twitched. She couldn't "Huh, interesting." _'Perfect, juuuust perfect! The crazy wolf lady couldn't have sent anyone ELSE but this cracked up joker?'_ The brunette thought cryptically, struggling to keep herself from showing any signs of worry. _'It's always me, isn't it? Not trying to be self-centered or anything, but all the bad stuff just somehow finds its way to me. First the space-beam, then the ring – even though that one's kinda my fault – ANYWAY! Then there were the bandits, and now _him_of all the people in this world. __…God must hate me or something.'_

"Umm…Pardon my asking, little Taylor -"

'_I _really_ am going to kill him.'_

"- but are you alright?" The voice of the purple haired boy that was far older than he looked asked. For some peculiar reason it sounded awfully close when he did so. Upon opening her eyes in curiosity, she found out why.

Regrettably so.

"_EEEEEEEK_!!" The teenager fell off of her seat with a piercing squeak like a stepped on mouse as she, quite literally, found herself face-to-face with the purple-haired troublemaker. Taking on a murderous look, Taylor glowered at him from her position on the ground behind the log she had previously been sitting on. "…_Xellos_…"

"Ah! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you like that!" The monster quickly apologized. Taylor noted that that was already the second time that evening that he had apologized for his actions without meaning a word of it, nor even regretting it. "Do you need a hand?" He queried from above her, voice laced with fake concern. Shaking her head soundly, she pushed past his outstretched hand as she got back to her feet, making damn sure that he didn't see her hands as she put them back into her jacket. Falling backwards was a mistake; falling back onto her hands made it only worse.

"No thanks… I'm good," Taylor responded quietly through gritted teeth, taking her seat again; soon followed in suit by Xellos who sat back down as well, one leg out and one pulled in so as he could rest his elbow on it. _'I must not let this guy piss me off – dammit, he is REALLY making this hard!'_ "Alright, I think I'm done with the questions-" For now, she thought "-and since you still have to take care of whatever business you set out to, I guess we'll part ways here." As the young girl started to stand up, an abrupt raised hand stopped her in mid-stretch.

"Actually," Xellos chimed, "I was thinking that I could ask a couple of questions of you, if you don't mind…"

"Oh no," she laughed nervously. "It's only fair, you know, since I gave you the fifth-degree too." _'Oh… shmuck…' _This, she hadn't planned for, even though some tiny part of her knew to expect this kind of afterward interrogation.

"Of course! Now then," folding his hands into what Taylor knew as the contagious Gendou Pose, the mazoku opened both his eyes. This time, enough so that both of the very reptilian purple irises could be seen and caused a very uncomfortable feeling in the pit of someone's stomach. "You said before that you were being chased by a few outlaws-"

"A _FEW_?!"

"-many outlaws," Xellos hurriedly corrected himself as the girl in front of him looked ready to strangle him with his very cape in her pent up frustration. "What I am curious about is _why_ exactly you are being chased. After all, a young girl such as yourself couldn't have possibly have every bandit gang within the vicinity after her for no real reason, now could you?" As the last words were uttered, the slowly growing tension that gathered among the two went through the roof. Taylor's ring-bearing digit twitched again while she swallowed some of the spit that had been accumulating in the back of her mouth. Gathering her nerves, she took a deep breath and gave the monster a weak smile.

"Well, if you don't mind me saying so," she sighed, "that was a stupid question."

"Why's that?" came the puzzled reply. Leaning towards the person across from her, Taylor's smile quickly turned into a large, sneaky smirk as she mentally put together a haphazard plan.

"It's because… that's something we _both_ know the answer to."

After a few minutes of the dead silence that had taken over the small clearing, it was interrupted by Xellos who began to rub the back of his head sheepishly, laughing timidly. "My, my, my! You know quite a bit about it, don't you?"

"Likewise for you, I'm sure…" With that soft spoken response, the demon unleashed a grin on par with the teen, inducing a sinister stare-down between them. A second later a loud cry of "_**RA TILT**!!_" split the silence, followed by a blinding light and an incredible blast that made short work of the campfire and campsite, making loose dirt take to the air and cover the entire area with a large dust cloud. After most of it had settled, and she had regained visibility, Taylor stood defensively in the center of the cleared area, rapidly scanning the area for the dark assailant. _'Where are you…?!'_ "Xellos, you sneaky bastard, get out here! I know you're still there!!"

"Quite the genius, aren't you?"

'_Behind me?!'_ "Yo–gaack!" Before she could finish her sentence, an arm snaked around her neck while the other grabbed her arms and twisted them behind her back effortlessly; off to her left the sound of wood clattering to the ground met her ears. "OWW! Dammit, I could… really do w-without the… s-sarcasm and… the choking!"

"Now, settle down," the demon wickedly murmured by her ear, which greatly disturbed her along with another feeling that she refused to even acknowledge. "Remember? I said that my business would be over quite quickly." Nonetheless, the hold on her neck lessened enough for her to breathe properly again. "So, how did you discover that something was up?"

"Simple Watson," Taylor declared, chuckling at the odd look she saw appear out of the corner of her eye. "I knew that sooner or later, one of _you_ people would come and find me. With this stupid thing's reputation, it was pretty much bound to happen sometime." _'I__ was just praying that it wouldn't be soon!'_

"'You people'?" Xellos questioned curiously.

"Come off it already," she groaned, rolling her eyes. "Like I said before, you know it and I know it – you're a mazoku." Wincing at the pain beginning to blossom in her shoulders and elbows, she shifted a bit so that it dulled the ache.

"Does that mean that you knew that when we were talking all this time, little Taylor?" He inquired again

"Call me that again and I'll set off a fricking Dragon Slave, I seriously do _not_ care if I get incinerated, as long as I take _you_ along with me."

"Taylor. Now, as for my question."

_'God, this guy asks a lot of questions. Hell, I didn't even ask this many…at least, I don't think so.'_ Taylor rolled her eyes, "I wasn't really sure about it until you told me that you had _business_ in this area. From there, I was just going off of a guess; I was right though, wasn't I?" She let the question hang, positive that it wasn't going to be answered.

"Ah, I see…" As the silence began to resurface, the teenager tilted her head to the side so that she could barely see the purple-haired boy and asked the expected question.

"So… what's your plan now?"

"As I said before, it is a recovery job," he replied, still smiling. "I'll just be taking the Band of Eldohras and then leave you to whatever you were doing." Not two seconds after completing his sentence, the girl he had in a choke hold suddenly burst into deafening, uncontrollable laughter. "Ehhh? What's so funny?"

"Just _take it_?!" The sixteen year old crowed, "Good luck there, buddy! This thing doesn't come off, trust me – I've tried damn near EVERYTHING!!" Behind her, a truly confused expression came over Xellos' visage, his grip loosening as the corners of his mouth twitched comically. Noticing this, the girl took her chance to escape by elbowing the monster hard in his ribcage and scurrying away to a safe distance. Facing the hunched over Xellos, she held out her arm, palm facing outwards and bearing the ring, in preparation for a spell if needed be. It was pointless to hide it now.

"W-what do you mean 'it doesn't come off'?" Xellos forced out, holding his rapidly healing abdomen.

"I know it's really overused, but did I stutter? You really do ask a lot of questions, even more so than I did… So, what? Nobody on your side told you that?" Taylor stated bluntly.

"No…" As his words trailed off, in the back of his mind Xellos thought back to when he was first given the assignment. He was stunned to recall that he hadn't received any current details except for 'a female, human child is carrying it through the forest of Zerphian, a place dangerously close to the outskirts of some nearby villages, to which he was surprised she made it to at all within _three weeks_. That, and the haunting yet comforting beam of his master. "I don't believe so…"

"God, you are misinformed for a mazoku, and this thing was made during The War of the Monster's Fall!!" She made an unintelligible noise under her breath while pinching the bridge of her nose with her left hand for a moment before pointing to the odd piece in her finger. "Okay, look. Just so you know, and this was told to me by its Nakajoumi guardian so don't get snippy, but he said that, an i-quote, "When the Ring of Power is worn by a person it becomes attached to them for the rest of their lives, even going as far as passing with them into the next life so that it can stay with them until the end of time. It was originally designed so that others couldn't use it once the wearer put it on" un-quote." _'Wow, seems that everyone has been saying that lately…'_

"Oh." To her evil-persona's delight, Xellos' mouth dropped open in shock but after a few minutes of her silent, mental laughter, she abruptly noticed that the malevolent gaze that he had acquired before was back in full force; and was enough to send a horrible chill shooting down her spine. "Are you _sure_ that you tried everything, Taylor?"

_'__Shizz, what's with the look?'_ "Yeah, everything that wouldn't, you know, injure me badly; I'm not THAT crazy-" _'Wait just a cotton-pickin' minute!'_ "Ohhhhh no. No, no, no, NO!" The teenager cried aghast, shaking her hands frantically out in front of her as she realized what the purple-haired being was hinting to. "Don't you dare even _think_ about it!!"

"But I thought you said that you tried _everything_?"

"_I'm not cutting my damn finger off!!_" Taylor screamed in paranoid defense, traces of fear becoming noticeable in her voice. With a twisted leer, Xellos moved forward like a falcon stalking a mouse towards the young girl. "You – you crazy-assed jerk!"

"Yes, well, come on now." He spoke, no longer with a happy manner. "Shall we get this over with?"

"_**BURST FLARE**!!_" As a fiery explosion rocked the clearing, a silhouette could be seen dashing away into the trees, away from the flames and the attacker. Taylor panted as she ran through the underbrush. _'Aaaand, I'm running! AGAIN! That took a little out of me, two big spells almost right after another. I'm actually glad I'm getting used to it, even if it is a stupid ring. But I can't stop or I'm screwed, I hate this!'_

"You know, if you made it easier on yourself this would be over much quicker."

"AAUUGH!" Jerking her head back to face the offender, who she found _flying_ beside her, Taylor tripped on an outstretched root, sending her sprawling face-first into the dirt. Not a second later, a pair of feet pressed down against her body; one on her left elbow and one in the middle of her back as her right arm was lifted straight up, gripped roughly at the wrist. "Owwww…!" _'I _really_ hate this!'_ And as if someone standing on her with all of their weight wasn't bad enough, the distinct sound of a blade being drawn out of a sheath reached her ears. Eyes widening, she started struggling as much as she could to get the mazoku off of her, but stopped as the heel of the boot ground itself into her lower back. "AH! FU-"

"Don't struggle. If you do I might miss." Xellos said snarkily from above her.

"Wouldn't you?!" She shouted again,frightened tears threatening to escape from the corners of her eyes. She was breaking, after she had tried so hard not to let it show before in front of the double-crosser. "You're about to mutilate my hand – MY DOMINANT HAND!" She froze as the feeling of cold, sharp metal pressed against her ring finger, just below the band. Shutting her eyes as tightly as she could, the teenager bit into her lip in preparation for the oncoming pain.

But it never came. The only sensation that she felt was a peculiar cold tingle around her captured hand that she did not recognize.

"…uh…?" _'What – what the hell?'_ "Xellos?" She asked weakly.

"Yes?" he replied, his voice taking on a strange, tentative tone that Taylor had never heard from him before.

"What did you do _now_?" There was a pause, where only the wind going through the leaves could be heard, before the pressure on her back and left arm vanished. Looking up from the ground, she noticed her companion crouching down in front of her, still holding onto her wrist, the ornate knife in the other hand poised and ready. "What?" Taylor asked again with an equal quizzical stare that mirrored the mazoku's.

"Did you _do_ anything to it?"

"No." Taylor glanced at him suspiciously, raising an eyebrow. "Why? What happened? Are you gonna answer?" As fast as it appeared, the confused look vanished as the false smile returned with a vengeance. _'Oh God - its baaack!'_

"Well, it seems that there's a teensy dilemma in my plan of obtaining that ring of _yours_." He said with a strained smirk.

'_O rly?'_ The girl thought to herself sarcastically. "And why's that? Or are you trying to bullshit me to catch me by surprise, again? If you are, I'm so not falling for it."

"I'm not, really I'm not." Rising to her knees, Taylor leaned in close to the monster, giving him a scrupulous evil eye while he protested in self-defense. "I'm not!"

"Okay," she continued hesitantly as a bad feeling in her gut began to surface. "…so, what's this 'dilemma' of which you speak of?" _'I have a fateful feeling that I shouldn't have said that…'_

"This." Still holding onto her wrist, Xellos slammed it into the ground, plunging the knife down towards her hand with an unnatural speed; one that she had no hope of stopping.

'_Too fast!'_ She mentally cried, watching almost in slow motion as the blade closed in. _'Damn!'_ At the moment of immediate impact, she shut her eyes shut once more in anticipation-

Ping.

'_Wait__…_ '_Ping'?'_ Upon opening her eyes cluelessly, Taylor was astonished to find that instead of a mutilated hand, that a small, blue orb surrounded the entirety of her right hand. "What the-?"

"A barrier." The purple-haired boy sighed as he released her hand, tucking the dagger back into his bag. "I believe that it's supposed to keep others from taking the Band of Eldohras from you." He sighed again as the girl blinked blankly a few times before sinking onto the ground with a loud groan. "Haaa…what a disappointment – hm? Is there something the matter?" Xellos asked at the face that the girl was making.

She sent him a poisonous glare from her level. "What do YOU think?! I mean other than scaring the piss out of me for the rest of eternity, I'm now stuck with this thing on my fricking finger for the rest of my natural – and _unnatural_ life! My whole life is going to be me on the run from bandits and crazy sorcerers and astral beings that are damn near impossible to beat – _how do you think I'm feeling_?!" Taylor cried into the dirt. "Even trying to cut my finger off won't work, this sucks royally…" After weeping into the ground for a few moments, Taylor rolled onto her back, wiping the fluids from her face, and stared wearily into the face of the still crouching Xellos. "…sorry about that…"

"Not a problem," he returned as he stood up. "It seems that we're both having a bad day."

"You said it brother," the girl glowered, standing as well. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence and quiet stares, she sighed. "So what are you… what are you going to do now? I mean, you obviously can't retrieve the ring…"

"My orders were to obtain the Ring of Power by any means necessary." Xellos stated as he gained a very human stance of hopelessness before returning again with the silly grin. "I suppose that I'll just have to stick around with you until I get it."

It took a few moments for the sixteen year old to run the sentence through her brain enough times to be sure that he was being entirely serious. "…wait – WHAT?!" Taylor shouted in outrage, her mouth dropping open in shock. "That's what _you_ think! Oh nuh-uh man! No WAY in hell am I letting you tag along on this-" _'Ohsnap.'_

"On what exactly?" the monster asked curiously. Flustered at the blatant question, the brunette struggled to find an answer that didn't include the fact that she was not of his world, or any other world in that dimension. Doing so could result in him doing something very monster-like. Taylor shivered at the images her teen mind gave her. So she went with the easiest white-lie she could come up with to see if he would possibly go for it.

"Uhh… back home?"

"You're lost? Well, I'd be happy to help you find your way…" Sadly though, there was none.

'_Dammit, that didn't work. I'm gonna have to tell him the truth, aren't I? Shit…'_ Taylor gave an aggravated sigh as she desperately willed herself not to pull out her hair out by the roots. "I'm…I'm trying to find a way to get back to home, and not the kind of home that you're thinking of." '_And to get this stupid thing off my finger – but you do not need to know that now DO YOU?'_ Glancing up at the at the monster priest for a minute second, she continued. "I'm not from here at all actually…originally I come from Roseburg Virginia, a state of the United States of America." As she watched the mazoku's face blanch slightly, Taylor cut in before he could say anything about it. "I wouldn't be very surprised if you haven't heard of it, that's because… because I've somehow been thrown from my world and into yours with that whole 'alignment of the planets with a touch of wacko magic energy beam' thing." She grumbled, pausing soon afterwards.

"…my, my. That's… interesting." Xellos replied slowly. "Another dimension you say, hm… quite interesting. I've never heard of such an instance before. That would explain how you came into possession of the ring first."

Taylor snorted indignantly, waving her hand dismissively. "Hey, not my fault I ended up in the same stupid cave. I call that a God damn plot device…" Suddenly, a look of abrupt realization crossed over the face of one such monster which made a small part of her consciousness start to worry again.

"So, before, when you said it was obvious as to who, and what, I was-" Her pupils turned into pinpoints as the reason for her previous worry dawned on her, "-were you saying that because of the feeling you were getting from my arrival, or that you already knew who I was when I first revealed myself?" He finished with a sly smirk.

"…eh?" _'Dude, seriously, why does he have to pick up onto things like that?!'_ Groaning, the teen's shoulders slumped at the familiar devastating feeling overwhelmed her. It wasn't as if the monster wouldn't have found out sooner or later if he choose to stick around, but she would've definitely preferred it to have been later. Much later. Without another moment's hesitation, Taylor nodded as she rubbed the back of her head out of embarrassed habit. "Heheh, yup…caught me red handed there didn't you Xel?" She gave a forced laugh, "Whoo-boy, this is uncomfortable. I suppose that you'd be wanting the details then?"

"You suppose right Taylor." He replied, shaking his finger at her mockingly as if he was scolding a misbehaved child. "It's not very nice to keep secrets like that from the people they're about."

"Not that you don't do that on a regular basis, but it's not really about you." She practically sweat-dropped, "it just _includes_ you."

"…what do you mean by that exactly?"

'_Dear God… give me strength.'_ Taylor sighed again. "Alright, let me give you the nutshell version, just to save time because SOMEBODY is getting us off of the subject of you _traveling_ with me." Taking a deep breath and exhaling at the same speed, the young girl continued with her explanation. "I basically…read this story about an old acquaintance of yours, a certain red-headed sorceress that is-"

"Lina Inverse." Xellos stated.

"You got it, now quit interrupting. The story first starts at the time where she meets Gourry to the end when she and the gang, excluding you, beat Rezo/Shabranigdo. Then she and the gang meet up again, also excluding you and including Sylphiel, to beat Copy Rezo/Zanafar. Then a while later, it continues when she and Gourry meet up with Amelia and Zel and go looking for the Claire Bible Manuscripts – that's where _you_ come in." She declared, pointing her finger forcefully at the purple-haired personage. "And we all know how that ends. 'Brizzo looses out to Nightmare-Lina and everything returns to relatively normal." In the back of her mind, an everlasting fluff moment made itself briefly known. She mentally gave a toothy smile. _'Oh if only they knew…'_

"Something on your mind?" He asked with a tinge of disgust evident in his voice.

"Mm, nothing much." replied with an underlying giddy tone, singing _'Haaaappy feelings!!'_ to herself. "Can I go on?" Even though he still stared at her with his usual stone face, the teen could see a small, green coloration in his complexion. After a short nod and shrug, she started again. "M'kay. The last installment of the epic begins again when Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis, and Amelia, meet up with you again and Filia, for the first time, and completes itself with the end to the Darkstar incident where everyone separates for the last time, that the fans know of anyway." Taking in a deep breath to regain the oxygen she lost from saying the last sentence in one breath, Taylor collapsed back onto the tree trunk. "You got it now?" She asked, mentally groaning at how tired she had become.

"Yes, I believe so," he replied with an acknowledging head shake. "Would this perhaps be a popular story?"

"Only in some circles, I know that most of my friends know about it," She replied. "The story's pretty old for my generation so I'm not surprised that not a lot of people have heard of it."

"I see…one last question, if I may."

Taylor snorted, "Fine, but I'm not standing up for this." As if to further her point, she sat down in a crouch. "What is it?" She raised her eyebrow in curiosity as he strode over to copy her movement in squatting down on the balls of his feet, smiling ever still.

"Besides the 'main story line' that you have told me, what else did this tale of yours reveal?" Chuckling the first time that her guest made his appearance, she grinned ecstatically into Xellos' face.

"I am so glad you asked," The teenager chirped, startling the demon. "It 'revealed' that you, Zel, and Gourry look good in drag. Lina is deathly terrified of her big sister. Amelia's big sister is actually alive and strutting around in her dead mother's underwear. And _you_," she said sadistically, "are so very bothered by feelings of life and wonderfulness and love and joy and-" she was cut off suddenly by a gloved hand slapping itself over her mouth, which was grinning even under the circumstances.

"Alright, you have proved your point _thoroughly_," Xellos forced through gritted teeth. "You know much more than I thought you did."

"Meh, what are you gonna do." _'Okay, now then… jeez, I am so tired of doing this…'_ Getting back to her feet, she crossed her arms stubbornly while glaring at the mazoku in question. "Back to the little fact of getting you off of my back," she scowled, "can we please get this over with so I can get some sleep?"

"Yes I believe so," he nodded. "What do you want to talk about?" At this completely stone-faced remark, Taylor promptly face-faulted, a second before she grew an interesting shade of crimson from holding in a cry of total ire.

'_Urge… to… kill… RISING!!'_ "You coming with me. You know, that whole issue of you following me all over the damned place – THAT'S what I want to talk about!!" She screamed, stomping over to Xellos with a look of utter loathing in her eyes.

"Ah, that." He plainly stated, too plainly for Taylor. She watched painfully as the monster thoughtfully put a finger to his chin, making thoughtful noises under his breath that seemed to last for hours until he responded in a disgustingly sweet voice, "I shall personally be escorting you on your journey."

Taylor stilled, locking her eyes hatefully onto the man as she tried to control her breathing into a calmer pattern. _'And here we go.'_ "No, you won't."

"Yes, I will."

"_No_ you won't."

"Yes I wiiiill."

"No you won't God dammit!"

"I _will_ unless the ring is in my possession."

"Well guess what – YOU'RE NOT GETTING IT!! So too damn bad for you!"

"Hmm, then I guess I'll be staying with you for a while." And for once, in a very, very long time, Taylor Bryant was struck utterly speechless. In either argument she lost out to the newcomer, and she had no smart comeback for it. A true no-win situation. Then agin, it had been that way from the beginning if she thought about it.

'_If he wasn't so fricking – ARRRGHH!! Oh… screw it all… I'm tired of screaming at him…'_ So, in a surprising turn of events, Taylor sighed, hanging her head as she turned back in the direction of her campsite and muttered, "Fine, fine. You win," bitterly over her shoulder.

Blinking in astonishment at the sudden twist, Xellos began to slowly but steadily trail behind the teen as she walked back to where they had been previously. "Really?"

"Yeah, really, don't make me spell it out for you." She called back through the trees, "I'm too tired to deal with this anymore, and I still need to clean up my camp." _'That __**I**__ destroyed… Gods…'_ "So, yeah, you can come with me. Just don't try to kill me anytime soon or I'll pump your head so full of disgustingly fluffy feelings that it will be fatall to be in the same room as me, got it?"

"A-absolutely," Xellos chimed warily. Picking up his fallen staff, the mysterious priest walked back to the clearing and what was left of the girl's campground along with his new companion. Once there, as Taylor started to pick up some of the debris that covered her fire, he stopped in front of her abruptly and announced that he had to briefly return to his master for a quick report about the situation, causing her to give a blank look that clearly conveyed her feelings of absolute irritation.

"You're going back." It was more of an accusation than a question.

"Guilty as charged."

"After that big argument over you leaving me the hell alone."

"I'll be back in the morning, not to worry."

"…whatever, I'll see you later." She sighed again, watching as the mazoku disappeared into thin air not a moment later. Then, she waited.

Two seconds.

Eleven seconds.

Twenty-five seconds.

Thirty-eight seconds.

Forty-three seconds.

Fifty-six seconds.

A minute went by before she was able to fully relax without expecting the purple-haired menace to jump out from behind her yelling "BOO!" Hell, at this point she would've gratefully settled for a "YOU'VE BEEN PUNKED!!" She slumped over as she sat down on the same tree stump as she had earlier from before the incident, running her hands through her hair as she very slowly exhaled, as if she had been holding in a stifled gasp when the demon had first showed. "Why?" Taylor softly asked herself, raising her eyes to the speckled sky. "I mean really, why… why the hell to I have to_ like_ this guy? Out of all the people in this dimension, why _him_…" The teenager moaned in exasperation. "And he had to be SO much more annoying in person, good lord. Well, at least he has his Japanese voice; that English version just _sucks_."

* * *

"Zelas-sama, I've returned with my report."

"Ah, come in…now, my Priest, what do you have for me concerning the Band of Eldohras?"

"Well, it seems that our information on the subject is not as accurate as we originally thought."

"Explain."

"As I've come to take note, once the band is in the possession of its owner and is worn by them, it… cannot be taken off."

"… … really now?"

"Yes, I have sufficient evidence to support this that was told to the current wearer by the Nakajoumi guardian that had been previously guarding it along with my own testimony. Also-"

"Also?"

"The new owner of the Ring of Power has told me a small fact about herself that I think you will find quite… fascinating."

"How so?"

"Taylor Bryant, as is her name, has confided in me the secret of her origins, which are out of this world if I do say so myself."

"Really my Priest, you have tempted me quite enough already."

"Yes Zelas-sama. She, incidentally enough, is not at all from 'around here', in fact she's not from any town, city, or state on this continent. She's from a completely different plane of existence altogether. And, not only that, but numerous tales from our dimension, that seems to be solely focused around one Lina Inverse and the three of her greatest adventures, are very well known by her people."

"Hmmm… well, well, that is, as you say, fascinating. Is that all?"

"To a certain extent, Zelas-sama. To be able to follow through with the mission you granted me, I acted on my own terms and have made it so that I will be traveling along with the girl as she hopes to find a way back to her home somewhere in our dimension and, I suspect, to secretly find a way to get rid of the ring."

"Quick thinking as usual I see, my dear Xellos. I want you to stay with this girl, keep an eye on her. I do not want any other to possess this power that we lost long ago."

"My, this feels like old times, does it not Zelas-sama?"

"Yes, it does."

"Well… I must be off if I am to make it back to by new friend by morning or she just might leave without me."

"Of course, happy trails." As Xellos once again flitted out of existence, Zelas the Beast-master leaned back onto a multitude of various colored cushions and pillows and gazed as a scene played out in a large, translucent pool of unidentifiable liquid within a metal bowl perched on a decorative stand; to which she had willed to come back into view once her faithful servant had left. Twirling a lone digit in the mysterious water, she looked onto a familiar campsite where a small figure slept blissfully against a tree trunk under a simple, large, brown cloth that clearly didn't belong to her. _'Hmm, most likely acquired it from an incapacitated ruffian.'_ The woman grinned as an earlier sight crossed her mind. "Oh, my dear, dear trickster… You have no idea at what you're really in for do you?" With an all-knowing smile, the mother of beasts lifted her eyes to the ceiling. "This will turn out to be a very interesting event indeed…"

* * *

The tips of sunlight had just started to stream through the tree-tops and faint sounds of unfamiliar bird calls tore her away from an odd lucent dream that she already couldn't remember. Lifting her head groggily, Taylor slowly began to become aware of her surroundings when suddenly- "Good morning Taylor!" Echoed in her ear. Quite loudly.

"RAAAWWWRRR!!" The peacefulness was shattered as a brown blur shot forward and tackled the maddening offender, putting him in a tight head lock. _'I – cannot – believe – this – guy It's six in the morning!!'_ "Alright bub, listen and listen good. I am _not_ a morning person. At all. You do that again and I am going to REALLY hurt you. Are. We. Clear?"

"Cr-crystal."

"Okay then," releasing her grip on the mazoku, Taylor stood up and stretched as Xellos regained the lost oxygen. "…you good?"

"If you are referring to the talk I had with my master, yes, I believe we're good."

"Good… I've got food if you want some, sorry if it's not up to your standards."

"Not at all." So began Taylor's journey of epic proportions. By that time she could already tell that what lay ahead of her on her expedition in this new world with the guidance of a familiar, fiendish face, would be anything but easy; as clichéd as it sounded. Her first hurdle was over with, and she was glad for that. Taylor's little breakdown was probably the worst thing about it, besides almost praying she was in the _Fullmetal Alchemist _dimension instead so she could replace her hand. But even though the situation was looking up for now, she knew it wouldn't stay that way for long.

The constant sinking feeling in the pit of her gut would remind her of it every step of the way.

* * *

Kazumi: Holy moley that's a long chapter, Christ. But you'll have to excuse me for it. When I first wrote this, almost half a freaking YEAR ago, the shit hit the fan because of the VT shooting and it had a lot to do with my home town. We lost three alumni that graduated from the high school I'm going to; one who I met a couple of times, one who I seldom heard of, and one who I will not mention because I'm still so effing pissed off at him for making me feel horrible about telling people where I live at and go to school; I will NEVER forgive. Ever. Does anyone else notice that all the worst stuff happens on that particular week in April? Jeez…anywho, YYH is up next for its new chapter so watch for it; and always R&R. Ja ne minna-san!


End file.
